SecondMarket Bungled Facebook Share Sale: Atty

Law360, New York (December 13, 2011, 6:23 PM EST) -- An attorney for investors trying to buy Facebook Inc. shares told a New York state judge Tuesday that an online marketplace that matches private equity and other investors with sellers of stakes in private companies cost them $9.5 million on a bungled sale.

A pair of investment funds known as Facie Libre — Latin for "Face Book" — and affiliated with venture capital broker-dealer Felix Investments LLC alleged that SecondMarket Holdings Inc. botched the investors' efforts to buy 75,000 shares in Facebook from a former employee,...